Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3

It’s fitting that the most memorable and engaging social link quest in the game is the Dying Young Man’s tale. The player encounters a 19 year-old man with a terminal illness who clings to the main character, imparting the story he wrote in his final year to the one he grows to trust. Persona 3 does not beat around the bush: it’s a game about the inevitability of death–the acceptance of death, and perhaps the necessity and importance of death. This becomes apparent quickly the first time the player finds himself running away from the Reaper in Tartarus. Constantly, the game tells you to take a rest, to make good use of your time, and so on. In the end, no matter how much effort you put forth, everything will come to a close. However, the ones you made an impression on will remember your actions, and ultimately the game provides a nice sense of closure.

Persona 4 built what I think is a more entertaining game off of its predecessor’s blueprint, but after finishing Persona 3 I can see why it’s the considered the true original of the two games. The dating sim elements, the importance of the schedule, and the push toward the future make a whole lot more sense in Persona 3′s context; they’re more important to the story, and I have a lot of respect for this. With that said, I’d much sooner replay Persona 4; it has more interesting characters and refined gameplay mechanics. I say this without intending to tarnish Persona 3, though, as it’s a great experience too.

The structure of Tartarus hurts the game somewhat. In a story that’s otherwise so tightened around a core concept, you’d think the place where the most time is spent would fit, but it doesn’t. Tartarus is lengthy, repetitive, and honestly quite uninspired. If it had the variety in environments seen in Strange Journey, I could be a little more forgiving, but I found myself wanting to fast forward past the dungeon and get back to goofing off with Social Links.

I have to address one elephant in the room: shooting yourself in the head to summon a Persona doesn’t make any sense to me. I played through this entire game and never arrived at any satisfactory explanation for it, which is bizarre as it’s such a prominent thing. The game makes a huge deal of this, including lengthy animations and a few scenes focusing on the act toward the beginning. What did it all mean, though? Maybe this is explained in the FES version, but I feel a little unsatisfied even if that’s the case; it should have been made clearer in the main storyline.

There are a lot of tiny things I could harp on about this game, but in the end I did enjoy playing it. The battles are classic SMT, the dialogue is often amusing and has some rewarding moments, and the level of challenge is honestly just right. Persona 3′s destined to be a classic RPG and I would recommend it to anybody who likes them and can tolerate the long dungeons and learning curve involved in monster fusion.

7.5